On Monday, I talked about the need to be specific, even oddly specific. Today, I'd like to talk about when it's necessary to be "specifically general." While being specific can help you avoid confusion and frustration, being general has the advantage of not ruffling feathers and allowing you not to discuss personal issues if you don't want to. 1. Say you get a phone call from a distant relative asking you to fill her in on all the details of a personal family matter. She is not directly involved and is just being nosy. You don't want to give her any details, but you feel trapped as she has you on the phone. What do you do? There is no...
How to Effectively Discuss Controversial Political Issues without Arguments eBook Currently Available for Pre-Order The political climate in the United States is volitile. Most political discussions are heated, but they need not be. If you are a Christian and find yourself on the typical Christian conservative view of each issue, but aren't sure how to voice your concerns without ending up in a heated dicussion, this eBook is for you! This is a study like NO OTHER! Say What You Mean: Debating the Issues helps you understand the issues, but it also teaches you tips and techniques for presenting your Christian conservative viewpoints in a way that will be much more effective and friendly. Many people think of discussing politics as a debate and,...
By JoJo Tabares As so many of us scramble to make ends meet, we have become a nation of caffeine-addicted rushers. We're late! We're late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye. We're late! We're late! We're late! A bunch of Alice in Wonderland White Rabbits, we race from one thing to the next and seldom slow down enough to really understand what's going on around us. We can't. We don't have time! As Willy Wonka stated, "I have so much time and so little to do! Strike that. Reverse it!" With so little time and so much to do, we find ourselves becoming a nation of skimmers. We skim through our emails and even our...
I cannot believe it is the end of January already and time for Mailbag Monday here at Communication FUNdamentals. This month we found MANY questions and comments in our mailbag--mostly feedback on all the changes we have had here at Art of Eloquence.com and the newsletter. Say What You Mean Convention 1. Several of you asked how to register for the event and enter the drawings. The sign up form is now on the home page. This not only enters you in the six live drawings but allows you to receive What's New at Art of Eloquence, our monthly newsletter with freebies, special offers and info JUST for our subscribers. 2. A few of you emailed asking about the events...
Communication Lessons from Shakespeare While going through my email files, I found the following quote: "Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood." ~William Shakespeare Shakespeare packs quite a lot into this one line and I thought it so profound that I wanted to disect it to get the full impact of what he is saying here. Shakespeare says that conversation should be pleasant without scurrility. Scurrility is abusive language or a rude remark. This is quite unique today with the invention of electronic communication such as you are reading here. More and more I see people who feel free or even justified to be rude just because they don't...
